Major research interests

 

1. Rapid response vaccines/ diagnostics and vaccine delivery Influence of the virome on vaccine-mediated immunity

2. Antibody-based immunodominance and vaccine induced immunity

3. The virome and its influence on vaccine efficacy

 

Synopsis:

 

Currently the Ramamoorthy lab research spans three major areas; emergency vaccines and delivery systems, epitope-based immunization/ diagnostics and the role of extraneous agents in vaccine mediated immunity, funded by USDA-NIFA and NIH.

Rapid-response vaccines: Over 80% of the increasing number of newly emerging animal and human viral infections during the last decade are caused by RNA viruses. Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), a swine coronavirus, emerged in the U.S in 2014 and resulted in widespread devastation of the U.S swine population. To address the need for rapid-response vaccines which can be quickly developed and deployed in the face of an outbreak, we developed a novel first generation method targeting rapid-attenuation or complete inactivation of the viral agent. The approach targets selective destruction of the viral genetic material but retains structural components required to induce protection by vaccination. Thus, it combines the safety and efficacy advantages of inactivated and attenuated vaccines respectively. Current efforts are targeted towards improving the stability and delivery of the rapid-response vaccines, to stimulate strong maternal immunity and the passive transfer of antibodies via milk to protect against neonatal infection. 

Epitope based immunization/ diagnostic test development: While subunit vaccines are a popular strategy for vaccine development, their efficacy can be difficult to predict, as antigenicity at the epitope level is often influenced by the phenomenon of immunodominance. The induction of immunodominant antibody responses to off-center targets is usually an elegant mechanism by which viruses evade the hosts immune system. Our current efforts are focused on guiding rational vaccine design using “protective antigenic epitope maps” of vaccine antigens to re-engineer them rationally, with the goal of either improving the performance of suboptimal vaccines or develop vaccines for agents with weak and delayed virus neutralizing antibody responses. The mapped epitopes are also used for rapid response serological assay development.

Effect of extraneous agents on vaccine efficacy: Torque Teno Viruses (TTVs), are ubiquitous viruses that infect a majority of mammals within a few months of birth in a species-specific manner, and are considered a part of the mammalian virome. They are epidemiologically associated with several disease conditions including respiratory infections, auto-immune disorders and hepatitis, and also contaminate biologicals. Very little is known about the mechanisms involved in viral immunity or co-morbidities. Our current efforts are focused on developing tools to study TTVs in vitro and in vivo with the long-term goals of understanding how they can influence host responses to vaccines.